Loftus Garden Village
Newport, Wales
The Seren Group plan to transform the 6 hectare former Pirelli cables factory site, located adjacent to the London to Cardiff railway, into a garden village with about 250 dwellings. The lead masterplans were Alan Baxter Associates, working with a mainly Cardiff based team of planners and engineers. Our work on Kevin McCloud’s Triangle project in Swindon had been appreciated by the client and the Design Panel for Wales, so the Studio was asked to provide the environmental infrastructure to this scheme. At present the site, which had been a remnant green field until the last War, is almost completely sealed by the floor plate and hard standing of the factory. The core of the scheme is a green lane connecting two garden squares. We have promoted a multi-functional approach to the environmental infrastructure that included biodiverse rainwater attenuation and filtration, kitchen gardens and an urban orchard of fruit and nut trees to be planted throughout the scheme. The key streets are flanked by rain gardens, a 21st century version of the grass verges seen at Letchworth Garden City. We also promoted thinking about lower energy housing, renewables and placing the greater part of parked cars out of view to link in with aims of the One Wales One Planet report produced by the Welsh Government in 2009.